om the crowd)--"and I
taught him a lot o' things, and among 'em to play the pianner. So as
'tis Midsummer's Eve, and I see some very nice-lookin' young women a
tip-tapping their feet for it, and Mr. Mayow no further away than next
door, and able to play the fiddle to the life--what I say is, ladies
and gentlemen, let's light up a fire and see if, with all their
reading and writing, the young folks have forgot how to dance!"

In the hubbub that followed, Cherry caught Hester by the arm and
whispered---

"Why I clean forgot 'twas Midsummer Eve! We'll try our fortun's
afterwards. Aw, no need to look puzzled--I'll show 'ee. Here, feyther,
feyther!..." Cherry ran down the passage and returned, haling forth
Mr. Mayow with his fiddle.

And then--as it seemed to Hester, in less than a minute--empty
packing-cases came flying from half-a-dozen doors--from the cooper's,
the grocer's, the ship-chandler's, the china-shop, the fruit-shop, the
"ready-made outfitter's," and the Cheap Jack's caravan; were seized
upon, broken up, the splinters piled in a heap, anointed with naphtha
and ignited almost before Mr. Mayow had time to mount an empty barrel,
tune his "A" string by the piano, and dash into the opening bars of
the Furry Dance. And almost before she knew it, Hester's hands were
caught, and she found herself one of the ring swaying and leaping
round the blaze. Cherry held her left hand and an old waterman her
right. The swing of the crowd carried her off her feet, and she had
to leap with the best. By-and-by, as her feet fell into time with the
measure, she really began to enjoy it all--the music, the rush of the
cool night air against her temples, even the smell of naphtha and the
heat of the flames on her face as the dancers paused now and again,
dashed upon the fire as if to tread it out, and backed until
the strain on their arms grew tense again; and, just as it grew
unbearable, the circular leaping was renewed. Always in these pauses
the same face confronted her across the fire: the face of a young man
in a blue jersey and a peaked cap, a young man with crisp dark hair
and dark eyes, gay and challenging. In her daze it seemed to Hester
that, when they came face to face, he was always on the side of the
bonfire nearest the water; and the moon rose above the farther hill as
they danced, and swam over his shoulder, at each meeting higher and
higher.

It was all new to her and strange. The music ceased abruptly, the
dancers